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Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Summer temperatures are finally on the way up! That means time to cover-up in the garden. Lightweight long trousers and shirt sleeves, sturdy boots (in case of un-welcomed visitors in the garden), a floppy wide brimmed hat, sunglasses, gloves for all gardening jobs, sunscreen and bug repellent! Early morning starts in the garden to avoid the hottest times and keeping to the shade as much as possible.

What's the weather been like in the garden?Sunday started windy and drizzly, proceeded to a severe wind storm that saw our Market washed out! Back home it hadn't even rained but was very windy.Temperatures rose all week until Saturday brought a cool change.

Propagation:None this week

In the Garden This week:

The Onions have been harvestedand are drying out for storage.

I bandicooted** a few potatoes for a pink and white salad!Cranberry Red (pink fleshed) and Bintji Potatoes.

Weekly Harvest Tally:Doesn't include Greens fed to the chooks on a daily basis or herbs picked for use in the kitchen for cooking or tea making.Onion Red***5439gOnion Stuttgart***5809gPotato Bintji***344gPotato Cranberry Red***729gTomato Kotlas***50gZucchini (?)***990gZucchini Golden***254g

Eggs 19 From the 5 Farmyard Ferals12 From the 3 Barnevelders23 From the 5 Faverolles

To see how the various Garden areas fit on our half acre block check out the newest Map of our place HERE

**"Probably from the perception of the bandicoot's burrowing habits, a new Australian verb to bandicoot arose towards the end of the nineteenth century. It means 'to remove potatoes from the ground, leaving the tops undisturbed'."From ANU Index of Australian Words

First of the Tomatoes are ripening.This is an Ida Gold bush cherry tomato!

The Locusts have arrived in greater numbers and bounce off the shade covers. Local birds are having a great feast but The Black Ninja has given up chasing them.

They have been attacking the new seedling Silverbeet so I've netted that bed using some Vege Net from Green Harvest.

I was sure I'd eliminated all ground based pests from the new carrot planting in Bed 1 but the new seedlings were slowly disappearing!! I suspected locusts were the culprits and after netting that bed I see I was right.

The plants at the base of Bed 6 are floweringand attracting loads of helpful bugs!!

At The Community Garden:Everything has grown well. Another two tank beds have been planted and are awaiting their shade/wind protection.

On Tuesday evening I planted a few tough herbs around the base of the tank to make use of any overflow from the wicking system. The soil has been supplemented with manure, raised at the edges and the plants have been mulched with peastraw.

Weekly Harvest Tally:Doesn't include Greens fed to the chooks on a daily basis or herbs picked for use in the kitchen for cooking or tea making.Onions Red***294gOnion Stuttgart***120gParsley***25gTomato Ida Gold***30gTomato Kotlas***198g The first tomatoes are ripening!!!Zucchini(?)***585gLoganberries***320gStrawberries***191g

Eggs 16 From the 5 Farmyard Ferals12 From the 3 Barnevelders17 From the 5 Faverolles

To see how the various Garden areas fit on our half acre block check out the newest Map of our place HERE

What's the weather been like in the garden?The rain started on Tuesday and continued through the night with a loud thunderstorm which resulted in us being without power for most of Wednesday! All of the roads south to Adelaide were flooded and blocked.The rain was followed by much cooler, windy weather.

In the Garden This week:One or two of each of the Watermelons went into the Almond Area Wicking Bed along with a dozen Sweetcorn seedlings. The bed was covered with a net curtain because the locusts seem to be bad on the south side of the house and they love sweetcorn seedlings!!!

Of course the rain brought out every snailfrom it's hiding place!

Fortunately at least one of the Golden Zucchinisis true to type!!!

At The Community Garden:

The boys attached the water tank, with it's very clever guttering made from cut 40mm pvc pipe (so that the door will still open) just in time for the downpour!

Doc and I ran workshops for people interested in having a Wicking Tank Bed. As a result the first vegetables have been planted in the Community Garden!!!!!

Weekly Harvest Tally:Doesn't include Greens fed to the chooks on a daily basis or herbs picked for use in the kitchen for cooking or tea making.Zucchini Gold***706gZucchini (?)***555gLoganberries***297gStrawberries***191g

Eggs 13 From the 5 Farmyard Ferals13 From the 4 Barnevelders20 From the 5 Faverolles

To see how the various Garden areas fit on our half acre block check out the newest Map of our place HERE

I cleared the Wicking Bed in the extended Kitchen Garden (formally Dog Pen) of all plant material except the French Sorrel.The soil was a light dose of Blood and Bone.Holes were made in the soil and half filled with worm filled worm casts and seedling Silverbeet, Kohlrabi and Beetroot were planted to replace the failed Carrot crop. Plastic covers were popped on the seedlings to protect them from bug attack.

Following the complete failure of the Sweet Potato cuttings I bought this year I've taken slips (shoots twisted from the tuber) off a bought, organic Sweet Potato tuber and potted them up ready for planting soon.Shoots from some regrown tubers in the ground were dug up and placed in water where they have quickly formed roots. These will be potted up soon.

The Purple Monaro Garlic heads this week!

In the ground near Bed 7 (next to those Garlic heads) Dwarf Sunflowers and Leaf Amaranth have been planted.

The Locusts have arrived but not in huge numbers yet.

Weekly Harvest Tally:Doesn't include Greens fed to the chooks on a daily basis or herbs picked for use in the kitchen for cooking or tea making.Garlic***771gZucchini (?)***354gStrawberries***321gLoganberries***319g

Eggs 16 From the 5 Farmyard Ferals15 From the 4 Barnevelders21 From the 5 Faverolles

The 4 Barnevelders have been moved over to the Almond Area run and now live in Blackies old house and enjoyed the shade of the Mulberry tree during the recent hot days.

To see how the various Garden areas fit on our half acre block check out the newest Map of our place HERE

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Jason left a comment recently and asked about our shade support hoops. I have also had a few emails on this topic. For larger views of the photos please click on them!

We use agricultural water pipe. This is available in many sizes and strengths (eg. high or low pressure). It should be available in hardware stores, it is out here in the country.

For our larger shades we have used 2" black low pressure pipe (no stripes) this one fits very well over star pickets (droppers) that are hammered into the ground as far as possible (we have rock layers under our soil).

When we first tried these arches we purchased some 1 1/2 " green striped hose that needed to be wired on to star pickets. This meant it was not easy to remove the hemmed shade cloth off the hoops at the change of season.

For the arches over the beds I found that this 1 1/2" pipe fitted well over a common tomato stake. It will also fit over recycled plastic stakes which by the way will last longer in soil (termites can't eat them) than the wooden ones.

It would be best to:

find out what is available in your area

choose what you will use to anchor the hoops in place

take these to the supplier/shop and make sure the hose/pipe will fit before you buy.

These photos give an idea of the sizes the hoops can cover.

Bed2 with size and a net curtain cover over.

Bed 3 with size and mesh trellis over.

Tank Bed b at 880mm is the smallest area we have to cover.

Some people have trouble buying the piping in small amounts. Here are a couple of ideas other people have sent to me...photos used with permission, thank you. Some of their hints are included I may have edited the content slightly.

This one from JK in Queensland using PVC tubing over raised tank beds with 50% white shade cloth over green leafy veg the tubing is fitted over star pickets again.

"Note that I did use star droppers in these. They are down 600mm and the ground is mostly sand.The shade cloth I used is white and 50%. It is almost too light for the sun here (QLD) when the plants are young (seedlings) but the front part is not tied down and I often “fold” it on the top section to double the layer when the sun is overhead after about 11am."

These photos are from Gringo (on ALS) in Central Victoriausing conduit attached to star pickets.

"I've found that the best material for shade hoops is 30mm recycled conduit which I purchased from a second hand junkyard. You could use up to 50mm dia.however the larger the diameter the less flexible the conduit causing it to break. I line up two opposite pieces against the one star picket, drill a hole thru the conduit that lines up with the holes in the star picket, and insert a 70mm. galvanised roofing screw, which has enough tension to hold the lot together.Shade cloth covering varies in light intensity, as I've scrounged bits and pieces from all over the place, however interestingly, brassicas haven't done well under cover, they grew very leggy and consequently didn't produce very good heads."

Others from the net:

This small frame again constructed from PVC tubing with joints, seen here with plastic over for a cloche (From Bountea newsletter details here)

This is similar but is made to fit over a bed with extra height for plant growth. From the Peak Moment video "It's the Compost! Creating Abundance" (See it Here) again covered with plastic for added warmth.

Either of these designs could be used with shadecloth but if you are growing fruiting plants that require insect pollination you would need to allow an entry point for the pollinators or remove the covers at flowering time.

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I live in a rural township in the dry Mid North of South
Australia on three town blocks giving us a total of half an acre.
We endure extremely hot and dry summers only to be greeted with frosty
mornings during our increasingly dry winter months.
Despite this harsh climate we manage to grow much of our own food.
Water is scarce and many measures are taken to utilise every drop we
have.
Our garden beds are shaded (during summer), heavily mulched, humus rich
and most are now converted to wicking worm beds. With qualifications in both Horticulture and Permaculture I have fun experimenting with different ways to grow our food!